What is PCI Express

Okay, so what is PCI Express? It's
an interface on a motherboard that replaced AGP. PCI express
is a much faster interface. The fastest AGP interface was 8x and
could go up to 2.1GB/sec, the fastest PCI express slot 3.0 will do
16GB/sec, PCI 2 will do 8GB/sec, and PCI 1 will do 4GB/sec.Another
great feature of PCI express is that it's backwards compatible,
meaning, you can take a PCI express 1 card and put it in a 2 slot, or a
PCI express 3 card and put it in a 2 slot and it will work just fine.
The only difference as mentioned above, you'll always get the
slower bandwidth. A PCI express 3 card will only operate at
4GB/sec in a PCI express 1 slot and so on.

In the picture below, the PCI express slot is number 6. The
view below is the same board without the number. This board
actually has 2, the second isn't numbered but it's to the right of
number 8.

There are 2 types of PCI, PCI and PCI-e or PCI express.
When buying a card, beware the 2 are not interchangeable.

Adding a PCI express card to a computer is a much simpler process
than
most
people think. You will need to power off the computer and remove
the power wire. Install the card and fasten with either the clip on
your case or a screw. Attach the wires on the back of your
computer to the monitor and boot up the PC. Keep in mind, you'll
need to update the drives before your new hardware will work properly.